Aztlan – America’s Palestine

The region is called Aztlan, an area which includes all the territories conquered from Mexico in the mid-nineteenth century (1848) (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California) by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The State is to be called “Republica del Norte” and its government formed by members of the movement, La Raza (The Race), according to the movement’s website. The movement has chosen Los Angeles as its capital city.

This site is predominantly anti-Israeli and there are reports that the movement has close contact with Islamic activists. The publication of La Raza, called La Voz de Aztlan (The Voice of Aztlan), claims “There are great similarities between the political and economic condition of the Palestinians in occupied Palestine and that of La Raza in the Southwest United States”.

The references to Zionism and the state of Israel both in the website and in the publication are as strong in their context as they are in quantity: “Both La Raza and the Palestinians have been displaced by invaders that have utilised military means to conquer and occupy our territories”.

The threat posed to America’s national security by this hitherto-unknown movement, at least overseas, is questionable. However, for the first time, the United States sees a movement hostile to its central government spring up within its borders. The last time a state within a state was proclaimed, the result was the Civil War.

Like the Russian Federation, the United States of America must remain and function as a unitary state or else risk implosion. Aztlan is, without doubt, a marginal and little-important movement fuelled by a hotchpotch of pranksters, extremists, those who want an easy living and others who have nothing better to do.

It should nevertheless not be forgotten that the jigsaw which constitutes the geo-political blocks which form nations, is in a constant state of movement, a process very much kinetic and never static.